The International 2017: Day 5 Round Up

12 August 2017 10:53

We are inching so close to the grand final and crowning our winner, but first day five stood in the way and provided some incredible action. Newbee and LGD.ForeverYoung battled it out for a spot in the grand final, whilst two rounds from the LB would take place to decide who would take on the loser from this UB match-up on Saturday prior to the grand final.

Invictus Gaming vs LGD-Gaming

After falling to Newbee in the UB semi-finals, Invictus Gaming found themselves in a tough match-up against LGD-Gaming who hadn’t lost a match yet in the LB after falling to Virtus.Pro early in the UB main event. The first match was over almost before it started, with LGD-Gaming taking the win in just 19 minutes, the shortest main event match so far. ‘eLeVeN’ led the way playing as Magnus, scoring 3/0/7 and leading the match with 560 XP/Min. The match was over so quickly and efficiently from LGD that only one player on Invictus gaming scored a kill.

Sadly, things didn’t improve for Invictus Gaming, and the second match didn’t last much longer than the first with only three of their players scoring a kill. ‘AME’ led the way this time as Anti-Mage, scoring just 3/0/3 KDA but taking 336 last hits and 706 XP/Min. LGD-Gaming progress to take on Team Liquid later in the day for a place in the LB finals, whilst Invictus have to take the long walk home.

Newbee vs LGD.ForeverYoung

The second round of the day put the two UB finalists against one another for an automatic place in Saturday’s grand final. ForeverYoung came into the round undefeated in the main event, with Newbee having just dropped one match themselves.

The first match was a cracker, lasting 52 minutes. It was ‘Moogy’ for Newbee that was the x-factor after he posted 11 kills, a game high, to go with just 3 deaths and 13 assists. ‘Super’ posted the game high XP/Min for ForeverYoung of 686, but it wasn’t enough for the first match. Fortunately for the Chinese team, ‘Super’ came back and put in an even better performance in the second match to even up the best-of-three series. This time playing as Strom Spirit, the 23-year old Chinese player posted a KDA of 17/3/15 and 702 XP/Min, both good enough for top in the match.

The winner takes all third match did not disappoint, lasting 48 minutes and swinging either way. ‘Super’ could not continue his run of form, and in the end it was Newbee taking the win thanks to ‘Moogy’ and ‘Sccc’ stepping up once again. The pairing scored 28 kills between them to just 5 deaths, whilst also taking 38 assists. Newbee progress to Saturdays final for a shot at the $10+million prize purse, whilst LGD.ForeverYoung will have to wait and see who they play in the LB final tomorrow.

Team Liquid vs LGD-Gaming

LGD-Gaming came back for their second match of the day, but Team Liquid had proven yesterday that it wasn’t a problem doubling-up after they won both their rounds to progress through to this LB Semi-final.

To put it simply, the entire round wasn’t even close. Both matches lasted just 36 and 25 minutes a piece and Team Liquid asserted their dominance throughout, showing why they were up there with the pre-tournament favourites. ‘Miracle-‘ led the way in the first round, being the only player to get over level 20 with his 674 XP/Min. ‘Miracle-‘ had to play second fiddle to ‘MATUMBAMAN’ in the second match, but the destructive paring had 13/1/8 KDA between them and 531 and 765 XP/Min respectively.

Team Liquid progress through to the LB final where they will take on LGD.ForverYoung for a place in the grandfinal. The best-of-three series is sure to be hotly contested before the winner goes on the play Newbee later in the day in the championship best-of-5 series, and top prize in the insane prize purse that may even reach $25million by the end of The International 2017.